Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures and (very likely) misadventures of a writer who seeks to take his education, activism and seemingly boundless energy to North Minneapolis, (NoMi) to help with a process of turning a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood into something approaching Urban Utopia. I am here to be near my child. From 02/08 to 06/15 this blog pushed free speech to the envelope, so others could take heart and speak unafraid. Email me at hoffjohnw@gmail.com

I was asked to publish this list, and whether I agree with its content or not, whether I think it is politically savvy or not, the list is substantive. I decided to use the same standards for what these kids wrote as I would for any other comment submitted to the JNS blog. Virtually all substantive comments get approved.

ADDENDUM: I expressed doubt regarding the "over 100 people" comment below and was later informed that organizers did a head count and tallied 91 people in attendance. More came after that count, so the claim of having over 100 people is likely accurate.

So, without further ado, the children in attendance liked and did not like the following things......Liked

Did Not Like-Police talked too much-Talk about gangs, not what we wanted-Police changed subject-Councilmember doesn't talk-Police talked impolite-Police talked bad-Police talked hostile-Said no to Hmong translator (unclear if this "said no" was in reference to the translator at this event or to whether translators were otherwise available)-Police only talk of gangs-Police talk for two hours (also unclear if the time is accurate; but this is what the children said and is being reprinted here)-Very disrespectful-Boring-Condescending-Police yelled at us, we need video of his behavior-Police talked to much-He's scary

I was also sent the following letter, attributed to the kids who participated in the post-meeting discussion. It should be noted that although the list and the letter often say "police" in general terms, there was only one police officer present for the duration of the meeting and the discussions.

"April 11, 2010

To Councilmember Samuels:

We are Hmong students at Saturday’s meeting.At Saturday’s meeting, we did not like police officer Lembek.He was madHe was meanHe said he doesn’t need Hmong translatorsHe doesn’t listenHe talked too muchHe only thought of gangsHe yelled at usHe was impolite.He talked about gangs, not what we wanted.We do not want him at our meetingsHe was scaryHe hates the HmongHe said we are gangmembers, and we aren’t. Our families are angry at him for saying that.He read our list of problems, but he minimized what we said."

Once again, I wish to stress that Lindback did apologize and that many of his ideas were solid ones that deserve immediate action. I also personally disagree with the statement that "he hates the Hmong." But the responses above and the specific request to publish them here indicate a serious issue.

One other anecdote is important to note here. At one point when Lindback was suggesting a series of community discussions, he asked whether people would be interested in knowing what happens if their own child were arrested and charged with a serious crime. Wouldn't people want to understand the criminal justice system and how their child might navigate through such processes?

In short, the answer was "no." If their child was arrested, or if he did something wrong, let him suffer the consequences. People who responded essentially said that they weren't overly concerned about what would happen to their child as long as he (or she) were held accountable for breaking the law.

Later, I asked if this response was a reaction borne out of opposition to Lindback or whether it was expressive of Hmong cultural values. I was told that "you could not have an immigrant group more tailor-made to interact with the police," from the standpoint that they place a high value on law and order.

The Hmong youth and the "girls with attitude" have been calling officials to schedule a follow-up meeting so that the dialogue can continue.

14 comments:

Jebediah
said...

Frankly I'm glad that these punk kids are scared of the cops.

This is NoMi. The cops aren't here to hold people's hands and help old ladies with their groceries. They are here to protect and serve. And I count intimidating people into law abiding behavior as protecting.

I think the next time the MPD should just say no thank you and use their time catching crooks. It's obvious that just because this community can't get the special treatment they seek that they are framing the cops as bad guys instead of taking some responsibility themselves. It's been brought up to use Hmong liasions to perform on-call translation services which are a better solution to instituting special hiring and union busting preferences for one particular community of citizens.

The Hmong need and deserve a Hmong police officer. This blog stands in favor of a Hmong officer on the daytime shift. But this blog also approves most "substantive" comments, including the two mean ones above.

Ok lets assume that they do "need" a Hmong police officer. Not saying i'm agreeing but lets just say they do.

Explain to me what they did to "deserve" their own police officer? I'm well aware of the contribution the Hmong people made during Vietnam but please do not use that as your example of how in NOMI these particular Hmong should get their own police officer.

The Hmong are contributing to NoMi every day as residents and home owners. The Hmong community is collectively asking for this and not--so far as I can tell--asking for much more than this relatively small thing. Why deny it? It would be a helpful thing for everybody.

I think we would need to ensure that the designated Hmong officer would be available to respond to all calls. The example of car 410 holding the Hmong officer but car 450 being closer is a good one. To ensure the Hmong officer is available as much as possible I think we'd need to station them in the property room or some role where they could respond asap to calls related to Hmong community needs. If they are busy responding to requests from the wider community it won't be fair to the Hmong so I think the key is to find a role for this officer during non-call times to ensure they can drop what they are doing and respond to the community.

If there is another meeting involving the Hmong community and the police, would it help or hurt the situation to ask one of the night-shift Hmong officers we have to attend? I must admit that I sympathize with the Hmong officers, too. Law enforcement is a politicized profession to begin with, but their jobs are even more so.

While I can appreciate the attitude of many that the Hmong should just learn English, I would just make this observation: my family is of German decent, and settled in central Minnesota. In those communities, it was common to speak German in the home even into the second and third generations and beyond.

It seems people think that the "melting pot" isn't working anymore because issues like this are now discussed openly. I think that the melting pot is working about the same as it always has done - it takes several generations to work, not just a few years.

Is it possible to levy a tax on the propery owners in NOMI to cover this? Perhaps then we wouldn't have to pull from the existing force and thus disrupt the union. We could recruit the best Hmong officer we could find, perhaps one who can also teach Hmong to the other officers. This obviously is not free so we'd need to somehow raise revenue to cover this investment.

One think I think we're forgetting. If Hmong criminals are not read their Miranda rights in Hmong they may get off and be right back on the streets of NOMI. This is a compelling reason to have either all officers learn Hmong or hire Hmong officers for each shift.

Please quantify, as precisely as possible, the most effective composition of NoMi patrol officers by race and languages spoken.

Should we have 10% hispanic,40% black, 30% white 20% hmong?

What is the point of critical mass in a population, percentage wise, where we need to have race/language specific cops to target the problem?

If you could also, I would like to know why you're more qualified than the men and women of law enforcement to make these decisions.

Do you think the cops and prosecutors that tackle crime in Hennepin County aren't aware of the legal issues surrounding Miranda and whether a waiver of Counstitutional rights was done voluntarily?

Myself, I think that cops are doing a damn good job against incredible odds. I understand that they have hard jobs. I know enough of them to know they are very good at making use of their resources and getting a translator on scene if necessary.

Obama's policy of "kill, don't detain" is far preferable to that of Bush. Federalizing the Gang Strike Force was a step in the right direction. This "stop snitching" movement has all of the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda and a coordinated Military, Federal, State & City Response is merited. President Obama has the power to solve NoMi's problems with Predator drones overnight. He gives these gifts of freedom to other countries with Predator drones to other countries, but not to us. I voted for change, and I am waiting for some leadership. We know who the bad guys are overseas, so we sure as heck know who they are here. It's time Obama stepped up and started using his power to rid us of this menace in our community.